


Gravity

by Sanoiro, ships_sailing_in_the_night



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Having a Moment, Pillows!, Some Fluff, chloe was used, earl gray and bourbon, lucifer is there to comfort her, specialty drink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 15:17:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12345255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanoiro/pseuds/Sanoiro, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ships_sailing_in_the_night/pseuds/ships_sailing_in_the_night
Summary: Chloe figured out that Lt. Pierce was using her to get to Sinnerman and she went back to Lucifer's place heartbroken, letting him pick up the pieces.





	Gravity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kanshou87](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kanshou87/gifts).



> Thank you Kanshou87 for giving Sanoiro and I the opportunity for a collaboration on this prompt!

The whole city was pulsing around her, or it was simply the fresh open wounds she was currently carrying. The vibrations were felt with each dragging step, shaking her fragile core. 

The roads of L.A. were as unqualified for driving as much as the sidewalks were for walking. She would know, Chloe had equally walked and driven these roads before so it shouldn’t come as a surprise when she found herself standing at the entrance of a crowd buzzing LUX.

The line was long as she would have never expected on a Monday night. Contemplating her options after walking down the Sunset Boulevard for over an hour, a drink and whatever comfort Lucifer could offer sounded like a misfired good idea to her aching cold feet. 

“New case Detective?” Robert politely pipped while unhooking the velvet cord for her to pass. 

Her tight smile didn’t seem to bother the gentle muscular doorman and ignoring the handful of glares stabbing her back, inconspicuously she slithered in the ever-inviting to all, elevator. 

Silence greeted her signaling she had perhaps made the right choice seeking him out. On a couch resting face down, Lucifer's head was probed high by a pillow, eyes glazed on the flickering projection screen across the room. 

Eyelids drooping heavily, he seemed non-wiser he was no longer alone. Chloe took her chance to take a glimpse of his rare moment of domestic relaxation. There was no three piece suit covering his usually restless frame. The midnight blue nightwear glimmered enough to give more than just the impression of a finely weaved silk with cotton fabric. 

His lips moved in sync with the actor on the screen delivering the lines soundlessly aside from a few words escaping with his exhales. 

“That unwashed grape has transported her soul to heaven…” He murmured rubbing his eyes. 

Stretching with an obvious strain to the table he got hold of a teacup before carefully setting it on the coaster again; a new scene had captured his attention.

“Is the door still open?” She choked the words craving the closeness of her partner and best friend above to wherever they could have been at the moment. 

A hiss escaped him at the sudden twist of his torso when his head snapped towards her direction. Raising a hand, to signal her to give him a moment, he took several calming breaths through his flaring nostrils. She would have sworn he also took a bite of his cradling pillow, but his rigid back had captured her attention. 

“For… For a friend?” Chloe asked unsurely, fingers fidgeting in nervousness. 

Before the minute was over one of her thumbs would be chewed mercilessly between her dry lips. Sure enough, she sucked and bit the edge of her fingernail while Lucifer stiffly raised from the couch and examined her disheveled state. 

“Care for a cup?” He asked, peering his cup before twirling it around and gulping its last remains. 

“Only if it comes with some strong liquor.” Chloe exhaled in obvious relief and due to his inability to hold a grudge against her after avoiding him for so long. 

She had pushed him aside, trying to define herself in her profession once again only to make the same mistakes she had done before Lucifer Morningstar had become her civilian consultant. She had stopped following her instinct and started following orders.

“I see… Any kind of preference on the liquor?” He sighed checking from afar the vast selection of alcohol behind her. 

“Bourbon would be…” She hesitated to express her obvious tastes when it came to his collection of barrel-distilled smokey bourbons. 

“Comforting?” He offered surely already spotting her favourite bottle. 

It had sat there untouched if the dust was anything to go by. The only bottle to have collected the traces of time while she had avoided him and his house as possible in the past months. 

“Familiar.” Lucifer gave her one of his tender smiles. 

There were no questions over her presence in his penthouse at this hour, nor about the spots of blood on her shirt by the workday’s suspect. 

“We were always so different. You like Earl Grey and Bourbon at night while that’s my breakfast choice.” He teased opening the cabinet under the shelves in a quest for the tea she had requested. 

“No, Green Tea then?” She frowned dread filling her over how soon he had forgotten she only drank that in the evening.

“Not if you want Bourbon in there… Myself I prefer Rum at this point of the day so Black it is… Like the night!” He exclaimed cheekily, but she could see the worry filling his dark eyes. 

“He used me for a case… For a-a damn case!” Her voice crackled echoing through the penthouse.

She walked over to his couch and sat down, resting her head between her two hands. A few more tears dripped down the side of her face, eventually sliding off of her cheek and onto the cold, tile floor below her. 

Lucifer sighed, he hated seeing his Detective in such a broken state. It tore his heart from his chest and he would do anything in his power to put smile on her face, but the problem was he really didn’t know what to do. 

He stood in his kitchen and watched as Chloe continued to stain his freshly polished floor with her tears before an idea suddenly came into his head. He turned and reached up towards the mahogany cabinet, opening the small door, and pulling out two wide round ceramic coffee mugs, one light blue and the other red. 

He grabbed hold off the hot water that was just freshly brewed and poured its contents into each mug. Placing an Earl Grey tea bag in each, he allowed them to steep as he looked for the perfect Bourbon to add to the mix. Once satisfied with his choice of liquor, he opened the bottle and poured a small, but generous amount to the hot liquid. He picked up both mugs and headed over to where Chloe had placed herself on his leather couch. He held out the light blue mug in her direction, steam rising up towards the penthouse ceiling.

“Detective?” He called out and watched as she slowly lifted her head up, their gazes locking with each other. Her yes flicked down to the the blue mug currently outstretched in his hand, she carefully took the mug from his grasp and gave him a sad smile. Somehow he always managed to put a smile on her face, even when she was at her lowest point.

Carefully he took his place beside her to the right, leaving enough space between them so he could turn and have his body facing her. Their knees were touching only slightly, but between the hot mug in her hand and Lucifer’s leg, she felt herself become more relaxed and felt...comfortable. The heat was spreading through her body, warming her entirely from the inside. Lucifer then reached out and wiped the stray tears on her cheeks away, she didn’t flinch nor move away from his touch. Instead, she leaned into his hand and closed her eyes, remembering what it felt like to share a moment of non-sexual intimacy between them.

“What happened Detective?” He asked gently, rubbing his thumb in small, light circles on the smooth skin of her cheek.

“Marcus knew about our history together and how closely we worked together on all these cases. He desperately wanted to get Sinnerman into custody and he knew how you were also trying to find him.” She took in a breath before continuing. Lucifer didn’t interjection or make any remarks about Marcus’s behavior, which she felt he took almost every other opportunity to do so. This time, instead, he merely sat and listened to her.

“So...he pretended to have feelings for me to get close not only to me, but to lure Sinnerman out. I cannot believe I let him use me like that! How could I have been so stupid and blinded that I didn’t see it?!”

“Detective, you are an excellent cop and an even better person. Any man that has to use you in order to complete a case is obviously oblivious to what exactly you can accomplish. It seems that our famous lieutenant is not the be-all-and-end-all as Miss Lopez had described him to be. Any man that has to manipulate you and your emotions is not worthy of you…..like me.” Lucifer dropped his hand from her face as he stated the last part, looking away from her, not being able to meet her gaze. He took a long sip from his mug and then placed it on the glass coffee table in front of them.

“Lucifer…” She stated, almost a whisper. She took a long sip of her mug too before she set in down on the table, adjacent to his. She turned in her seat so she could be facing him directly, her legs intertwined between his. She reached her hand out to his chin and turned his face so his gaze would once more meet hers.

“I will say this, even though he used me for a case, Marcus is a good cop. He had good intentions, just like Dan with the Palmetto case, he just went about it the wrong war. Besides, the amount of cases he closes in a short period of time is better than any cop I have ever known. I want to be that kind of Detective one day, and yes he follows the rules. He does things by the book, he actually thinks about the consequences of his actions and he doesn’t throw criminals off buildings...” Both Lucifer and Chloe laugh a little at the last bit.

“...but even though he is almost everything you are not that does not make you any less worth. You Lucifer Morningstar are a good man, I see that even if you cannot. Yes, your impulsive and have some anger issues but I know it comes from your heart.” She slides her hand down from his face down the side of his neck and chest until her hand laid right on top of his heart. She could feel his heartbeat pick up in pace, beating faster then what a normal heart rate should be but she said nothing of it.

Lucifer shifted closer to her, having Chloe almost practically sitting on his lap, but not quite. Her arm bent into his chest as he was coming closer to her, her breath hitched slightly and her own heartbeat increasing in rate.

“Detective…” His gaze shifted from her aqua eyes down slightly to her lips before looking back up so he could drown in the sea of her eyes.

“I umm….I just want to let you know that...even though i’m not worthy I….-ever since.” Chloe watches and listens as Lucifer works to get the words out, she can see he is anxious so she gave a soft smile in hopes that it would help him.

“Ever since I met you my life has changed for the better. I guess what i’m trying to say is that you are the light that is guiding me now, I've been living in darkness for too long, but you…..You are what keeps me grounded and you have made me a better man, and I am truly thankful for that. As I told you on the beach, i’m not worthy of your grace, but you must know that you….you are my gravity.” He gave her a smile, a smile that she knew and recognized as genuine. The smile that was reserved for her and her alone.

Chloe’s eyes started to become wet again with incoming tears at his confession, but she held them back. She shifted back away from him to remind him that for tonight she needed him only as a friend, for comfort. He too shifted slightly away from her, remembering why she had initially come to him in the first place and knew she needed time to process what had happened. He cared for her deeply, but tonight he just wanted to be there for her as a friend. He picked up his mug as did she and they made light conversation while sipping on their spiked tea.

His stubble was more prominent than usual with the coarse edges slightly curling inwards. Calloused trigger pressing fingers brushed over his cheek’s shadow marveling their softness. How had that man reached his late 30s without a stubbing facial hair, was added to the many mysteries which were surrounding her partner. 

“I blame it on the bourbon.” She whispered making no move to get closer to his lip-licking sprightly to the words, pink tongue. 

Widened dark eyes softened with the laughing lines at their liquid rims deepening. Slowly Lucifer gathered his long legs to his chest before linking his hands around them. Every move was calculated, borderline painful by the twitch of displeasure his flexing muscles betrayed to her trained eye. 

“It’s pointless to blame the ground for your fall Detective.” Lucifer’s rare unwantedly tone soothed her between the last sips of her tea. 

“Is this the point where you tell me that we need to punish someone?” She teased watching the gradually solemn expression overtake his features. 

It was moments like this one where social conduct eluded him with the confusion sleeting in his eyes. Chloe would be truthful to admit that she enjoyed these moments. Innocence was rolling in waves out of him while he tried to make sense of the world around him once more. In these moments she also had to sink her fingernails bruisingly deep into her skin from refraining to being lost in him again. 

Too late. Months too late. Perhaps even an eternity. She wondered if he had noticed. Perhaps he had. 

“But who is the transgressor? The floor, the one who let you fall or the gravity?” Squinting eyes were now clear from any pointless contemplation. 

“The one who made you fall, I guess.” Chloe replied trying to pull him out from his racing thoughts which once again had nothing to do with the case at hand. 

A small brisk smile broke lightening his face. She had given him the wrong answer. 

“Gravity. The answer is always gravity.” He murmured apparently coming to a self-realisation. 

“I can’t sleep anymore.” She sighed mourning the last drops of her drink and how his obscure reasoning had managed to offer her some support after all. A nonsensical comfort but comfort nonetheless. 

“So that begs the question. Were you more bothered about the gravity or for being pushed into a free-fall?” Lucifer questioned her again seriously and passed her his still half-full cup. 

Recognition over his absurd metaphors finally clicked, and she should not have expected anything less from Lucifer. For a man who claimed to not understand humanity or emotions, he understood gravity. He understood caring, hopefully even love. No, he certainly understood love.

“The free falling.” She concluded smacking her lips to the strong taste of the blend with the heavy substance of the well-aged bourbon. 

His cheekbones were lifted to an inconspicuous grin while rattled inhaling breaths divulged his relief. 

“Then a drink and... a half along with a night’s good rest is what you really need Detective.” 

Taking his unsurprisingly empty cup from her now warm hands, he set it on the table next to hers.  
Gracelessly then he made it to his bare feet grumbling over not switching on the floor heating. 

Realising her stay had come to an end after waiting painstakingly for over ten minutes, Chloe studied the short credits of the movie Lucifer had been watching, start rolling. Out of all the movies, he could have picked… 

“A good night’s sleep then it is.” She muttered to herself dreading to return outside to the cold, but she knew she had let out steam so Ubering back home would be in order.

The elevator doors opened soundlessly by a single touch of the button as they always did in Lucifer’s penthouse. Pushing down a wave of disappointment, she knew Lucifer had offered her the best he could tonight. For a man with no concept of how consolation worked from any standpoint, it was to be expected. 

“Detective…” 

Turning to see a bewildered Lucifer cradling a pillow had not been what she had been expecting. The idea of spending the night on his couch was not appealing considering their history, but the man in combination with his alcohol and the raging fire in the fireplace were truly tempting her. 

Placing the pillow to her hands along with one of his velvet robes before stepping out of the cabin, was definitely not a sleepover invitation. 

“Robert will take you home for… for my peace of mind.” Rushing the words out he fumbled with the robe throwing it finally around her shoulders. 

“Robert and the robe I understand, but this?” She raised the fluffy pillow to his eyes not disappointed to catch a whiff of his cologne still lingering on the fabric. 

“For a good night’s sleep. I think it has something to do with the feathers... They can be very... Enlightening...” Lucifer stuttered fingers clawing the edge of the doors, still forcing them apart. 

“Enlightening?” She snickered at his struggle to explain why on heaven and earth he had given her his pillow. 

“I’m afraid so.” Stepping again in the elevator, he let the doors close behind him and pressed the button for the underground garage.

“Thank you.” Chloe muffled behind his pillow which somehow had found her way to her nose. 

Instead of replying Lucifer looked at her fondly as the elevator slid down. There was a blur between him hissing while stepping again on the cold, concrete this time, floor, barking orders to Robert and clasping her seatbelt in the doorman’s the 80s chevy truck.

When the man was satisfied she was warm enough, safe enough, her again enough despite the haziness the mix of bourbon and whiskey was causing, Lucifer placed a soft kiss on her forehead. 

“This game is a seven-card stud. It’s always... changing.” He told her gently before closing the door and nodding for Robert to start the engine. 

Bleary grey eyes met clear dark ones, and she simpered much to his amusement. 

With him, she would always blame gravity.

**Author's Note:**

> Sanoiro Notes:  
> 1) The movie was: A Streetcar Named Desire. The lines about the grapes and the seven-card-game are symbolically tied to the meaning they carry in the play. A short explanation is given within the next lines or actions. For more just google it.  
> 2) Lucifer’s question was what bothered her the most. The ground (her bruised ego), the free-fall (Marcus’ act of using her) or the gravity (Her gravitational feelings she had aka love). With Marcus, Chloe she replies it was the act but with Lucifer, it was always the gravity as she realizes that she still loves him.


End file.
